


Val Rayoux

by circadian_rythm, scurvaliciousbay



Series: Inquisitor!Kass and Companion!Mel [3]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Canon Divergence, Companion Introduction, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 10:57:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16911642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/circadian_rythm/pseuds/circadian_rythm, https://archiveofourown.org/users/scurvaliciousbay/pseuds/scurvaliciousbay
Summary: While in Val Rayoux, Inquisitor Kassaran Adaar meets the intriguing and cunning Melarue.





	Val Rayoux

**Author's Note:**

> Melarue belongs to circadian_rythm. She also made the stunning art!!

                                         

* * *

 

Sometimes Kassaran Adaar misses the Qun. Like Vitaar. Beautiful, decorative, useful vitaar that sits on her skin and makes her feel…she thinks the closest translation would be ‘queen’ but that’s not quite what it is either. ‘A woman of vital social import’ she thinks is accurate but clunky and not as emotive. 

For the past nine years, she’s been without Vitaar - ceremonial and otherwise. Her horns and face are bare and her daughter hasn’t known the joy of painting her face for certain days. 

What’s worse is when she is named Herald of Andraste and there isn’t one helmet around that will sufficiently fit over her head and horns. Horns that scare people, apparently. Horns that make the chambermaid n the morning scream because she thinks Kass is a demon. 

Horns that her Tamassran carefully molded in accordance with her personality and rank. 

She wears a hood when she travels to Val Rayoux under the advisement of Josephine. Her stature is alarming enough, no need to unnecessarily scare the clergy even more with having her large, curving horns on display. The points peak out from behind the hood however so it doesn’t completely help. As it is, she gets stopped by the guards several times for looking shifty. 

The hood itches and she doesn’t much care for it, but ladies gasp in fashionable distaste when she tries to lower it to her shoulders. So she pulls it back up and continues her journey through the city. 

It’s a beautiful city, all stacked up against each other with red and blue and gold, ornate decorations everywhere displaying wealth and opulence…but also poverty and the downtrodden as children and the homeless sit on corners and in alleyways with bowls in their hands. 

She doesn’t fully understand how people can simply walk by these dirty, suffering people without being so deeply affronted at their government’s inability to care for its people. But they do walk by, and one woman in surprisingly form kicks a child away when they reach out a little to closely towards her. They are…so small, covered in filth, their hair messy and so long she almost doesn’t see the long slant of their ears, but there they are. 

Her heart burns at seeing the child and before she even knows what she’s doing she’s bending down in front of the street urchin, looking into pale blue eyes surrounded by dirt. 

“Hi,” she says, smiling kindly. 

“H-Hello,” the child struggles to say. Oh, yes, not Common then. Her Orlesian isn’t perfect, but she can try.

“ _Are you hungry?”_  

The child nods and she pulls out a satchel, taking their hand and pouring some nuts and dried fruit in their hand. They gasp and eat it quickly, shoveling it into their mouth in a way that is entirely too telling about when the last time they ate. 

“ _What is your name_?”

They hesitate before answering in a small voice, “ _Etherin.”_

_“That is a very nice name, Etherin. Are your parents near?”  
_

Etherin’s face falls and they shake their head and she can see a few tears leak out of the corners of his eyes. Oh, oh no, he’s an  _orphan_? And no one has done anything? Not even the Chantry that she is pretty certain is supposed to take in orphans?

Well, she can’t just leave an orphan on the street. She can’t, she may be Tal-Vashoth and a rebel and everything but that doesn’t mean she is just about to abandon  _children_ , dirty, hungry,  _children_ , on the street to die. 

“ _Etherin, would you like to come with me? I can take you to Haven and you can be…a stable boy! We’re getting horses soon and we need stable boys! Would you like that? You can get food and water and warm clothes?”_ She offers and the their eyes widen in surprise before quickly nodding yes then shaking his head no.

Her brow furrows, “ _I wish to help. That is it. I promise to you, that is all I want - is to help.”_

Ehterin pauses again before nodding cautiously. 

“ _Wonderful_ ,” she offers the child a hand up when she stands and they rise to thin, knobby knees that she worries aren’t strong enough to support him. Etherin can ride with Solas on the way back, then, to keep the weight evenly distributed.

The child takes her hand and she smiles down at them and dirty face. A bath, she’ll have to give them a bath. They resume walking through the market place, buying some more food for the child, when the hairs on the back of her neck raise and an old feeling surfaces in her. 

It reminds her of the arson of her dormitory. When she had felt something was wrong in the air and evacuated the children just in time to see the dorm go up in flames, set ablaze by an angry recaptured Tal-Vashoth who wasn’t properly re-educated.

She shifts her body to protect the child just as a large form suddenly drops from above in front of her. Her hood is flung back, she draws her sword and points it at the…strikingly beautiful elf standing before her. 

This…is probably an overreaction, she thinks, though it isn’t entirely unexpected. She was just forcefully vomited out of the Fade not too long ago with a gaping, sucking portal to the Fade in her hand that vaguely resembles a vagina, which will make anyone antsy and sword-drawing happy.

Right. Extremely gorgeous and alluring elf who is smirking, she is paying attention.

“Someone is happy to see me.”

“Oh well, I can’t be happy to see you if I don’t actually know who you are,” she quips back. They smile in a way that reminds her of a great dragon that is about to swallow their prey hole.

“I am Melarue and I have been informed that the Inquisition is looking for able bodies.”

….

Is this person seriously asking to the join the inquisition? By…leaping down at her? 

“Uh, just a thought, Mom? Maybe not point the pointy end of the sword at the person trying to help us?” Varric says and Kass rolls her eyes. She knows that! She sheathes the sword and watches the incredibly alluring elf.

“Well, Melarue, I am Kassaran. Or just Kass just for short, a-and the too smart dwarf is Varric. That’s Solas and that’s Cassandra. Two, Casses but um, I have horns so that makes it easier,” why is she so bad at this? She’s a composed woman, a mother, a  _good_  mother, trained as a Tamassran, but apparently put an incredibly attractive elf in front of her and she turns into a dithering idiot. 

Herald of Andraste, everyone, behold.

But Melarue chuckles and she suppose she deserves that too but it’s a very nice chuckle, deep in their throat, shaking their shoulders. 

“Thank you for that distinction, though I think I would be hard pressed to forget the name of the Herald of Andraste.” 

“That’s the thing, the horns are tricky, I don’t look very….Andraste-y.”

“What are you talking about? You’re tall, you defend people, you mother just about everyone you meet, your daughter sets things on fire - sound pretty Andrastian to me,” Varric says. 

Kass rolls her eyes and Cassandra sighs, “Varric, that does not sound like Andraste,” the Seeker admonishes.

“What? What chant are you listening to?” 

“Anyways. Melarue, your offer is very generous, and yes, the Inquisition can use all the help it can get, especially from able bodies and yours certainly…looks very…able.” Bad, Kassaran! Bad flirting and bad professionalism! 

“You are welcome to join, we’re staying in Val Rayoux for a few days to let the horses rest up from the journey, and in the meantime we can…see if you’d like to continue to work with us.” She offers and they give a polite nod.

“That sounds like a reasonable idea, Herald.” 

She smiles at them and finds her heart beating a bit faster. This…this is starting something isn’t it? 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
